What is service?

[UtahDan]

Why should I serve you? You're not in my ward.

I have actually not heard a peep from my ward and haven't been there in almost a year. But I think that is because my folks are protecting us.

[LA Ute]

I have actually not heard a peep from my ward and haven't been there in almost a year. But I think that is because my folks are protecting us.

OK, OK, PM me your number and I'll call you. But it's no fun giving service when people start demanding it.

[Moliere]

I guess maybe it is a "Sunday School" question with an obvious answer I am asking. I think when people talk about service in the church they are talking about fulfilling their role within the organization. Teaching, planning activities, etc. Home teaching and visiting teaching. That was my experience. There was also the occasion raking leaves for an old lady or some other service project, but that is probably less than 5% of what service consisted of for me. I wondered if other people had been in wards where there was more service of a non-spiritual nature.

Nothing at all wrong with it, just not what non-Mormons think of as service, I don't think. I think people cover the charity (to including giving money) and service bases in their minds through church activity. It is just interesting to note that when they do so they aren't talking about either of those things in the sense most people do. The typical Mormon's service and charitable giving is focused almost exclusively on religiously oriented things.

Yes and no. We definitely serve in religious capacities, but our ward/stake also participates in local interfaith humanitarian organizations. We do activities that include teaching needy families to budget, be interviewed, prepare meals, shop for food, etc. We also have the YM/YW watch the kids of these people while the lessons/activities are going on. Although the director of the program is LDS, it has to take place at another church since we can't house people overnight in our chapels. We also have several other churches participate and help out just as much as our members do. It's a good program and has helped earn us some recognition among the evangelists, which is good for the almost-South.

We also participate with the local foodbank. We do a very large food drive every year. We do meals-on-wheels (and an LDS person is usually the one managing the program).

Not to mention the hurricane clean up efforts. Mucking homes in Galveston. Clearing trees in Sabine/Beaumont.

And those are all for non-members.

As for members I've seen on a daily basis meals prepared for new mothers, meals prepared for new widows, phone calls for new widows (seriously, they need the friendship), support for families that have drug addict teenagers, support for suicidal teenagers, life skills taught to young men that have no good parental influences, presence of decent father figures in the lives of young men that don't have fathers around, etc. (I could go on).

The church provides endless service opportunities. Sure some of those would arise if someone wasn't a member, but for the most part they arise BECAUSE we are members and know so many people and because needs are known or found out.

I don't like church meetings and I attend quite a few, but I don't mind them when they are short, sweet, to the point, and we come out of them with an idea of who needs help and how we are going to help.

[Moliere]

I have actually not heard a peep from my ward and haven't been there in almost a year. But I think that is because my folks are protecting us.

Maybe they are happy you are gone....

Seriously it was a joke, and I feel bad for typing it...but not bad enough to erase it.

[myboynoah]

I really don't mean it as a critique. I think when LDS people talk about service they are talking almost exclusively about serving spiritual needs as opposed to temporal needs. At least that is my working hypothesis. Trying to see if there is a good reason I should rethink that.

I think there are very good reasons to rethink your hypothesis. During your time of activity you never helped someone move, worked at a church welfare activity, helped out with scouting, helped with someone's critical housing needs, worked to help repair someone's home, did community clean up service, etc.? Was it all just teaching gospel and meetings about teaching gospel?

[UtahDan]

I think there are very good reasons to rethink your hypothesis. During your time of activity you never helped someone move, worked at a church welfare activity, helped out with scouting, helped with someone's critical housing needs, worked to help repair someone's home, did community clean up service, etc.? Was it all just teaching gospel and meetings about teaching gospel?

I did, but compared to those other things it was no more than 5% of what I did. If I have a teaching calling and count that as service figuring two GC's, a SC and a WC where I might not teach and assuming I teach for an hour and prep for an hour that is 48 weeks x 2hours= 4 days. Home teaching maybe another two hours a month, say I'm typical and do it half the time is another ten hours.

So four days ten hours compared to how many temporal service sorts of hour? For me it wouldn't be more than 10-20 a year at the very, very most. So I still think I'm right that when LDS say they enjoy the service opportunities the church provides they are mostly talking about fulfilling their roles within the organization and providing spiritual sorts of service.

[UtahDan]

Yes and no. We definitely serve in religious capacities, but our ward/stake also participates in local interfaith humanitarian organizations. We do activities that include teaching needy families to budget, be interviewed, prepare meals, shop for food, etc. We also have the YM/YW watch the kids of these people while the lessons/activities are going on. Although the director of the program is LDS, it has to take place at another church since we can't house people overnight in our chapels. We also have several other churches participate and help out just as much as our members do. It's a good program and has helped earn us some recognition among the evangelists, which is good for the almost-South.

We also participate with the local foodbank. We do a very large food drive every year. We do meals-on-wheels (and an LDS person is usually the one managing the program).

Not to mention the hurricane clean up efforts. Mucking homes in Galveston. Clearing trees in Sabine/Beaumont.

And those are all for non-members.

As for members I've seen on a daily basis meals prepared for new mothers, meals prepared for new widows, phone calls for new widows (seriously, they need the friendship), support for families that have drug addict teenagers, support for suicidal teenagers, life skills taught to young men that have no good parental influences, presence of decent father figures in the lives of young men that don't have fathers around, etc. (I could go on).

The church provides endless service opportunities. Sure some of those would arise if someone wasn't a member, but for the most part they arise BECAUSE we are members and know so many people and because needs are known or found out.

I don't like church meetings and I attend quite a few, but I don't mind them when they are short, sweet, to the point, and we come out of them with an idea of who needs help and how we are going to help.

Thanks. That is different than my experience and is the sort of info I was looking for.

[Moliere]

Thanks. That is different than my experience and is the sort of info I was looking for.

I'll admit we are a bit different than other wards I've been in. Different, but in a good way. I do like that the interfaith and food bank stuff is generally well received in that people sign up for it. Opportunities come at least 2 or 3 times a month for several people at a time.

Whereas service projects for the church (cleaning the temple, laundry at the temple, cleaning the chapel, yard work at the chapel, etc. are general not as well received. I think for the most part, the members in my area love to physically serve people outside the church, but we still do a lot of spiritual and emotional service within the church.

We are also stretched a bit thin, but in a good way.

[smokymountainrain]

Are there any kinds of service that you feel are unique to your church membership, in other words, but for that association you would not be able to give it?

This is not the answer you're looking for, but for me, this is a question that prompts a simple and sincere response from me.

Ordinance work on behalf of the dead. I know some on this board have expressed concerns with the temple for various reasons and I think all of those reasons make sense. But it's the service we perform on behalf of those who've died (something those people can't do for themselves - which is the essence of true service, IMO) that makes Temple work a special opportunity that is unique to membership in the church and to those who are willing to do what is necessary to get a temple recommend and use it.

Regardless of how much we enjoy going to the temple, it's the opportunity to serve that is the reason we should be attending the temple. Of course this is all contingent on a person believing the doctrine.

This just answers this one specific question of course. In terms of the broader question about service, I'll just agree with PU's answer - he said it better than I can...

In my mind, 'true service' is finding an individual or group or people that has what I believe to be a true need that they cannot fulfil and I fulfil it.

Sometimes that's as simple as companionship or conversation. Sometimes it's just asking how someone is doing. Sometimes it's rolling up the sleaves and doing some manual labor.

[UtahDan]

This is not the answer you're looking for, but for me, this is a question that prompts a simple and sincere response from me.

Ordinance work on behalf of the dead. I know some on this board have expressed concerns with the temple for various reasons and I think all of those reasons make sense. But it's the service we perform on behalf of those who've died (something those people can't do for themselves - which is the essence of true service, IMO) that makes Temple work a special opportunity that is unique to membership in the church and to those who are willing to do what is necessary to get a temple recommend and use it.

Regardless of how much we enjoy going to the temple, it's the opportunity to serve that is the reason we should be attending the temple. Of course this is all contingent on a person believing the doctrine.

This just answers this one specific question of course. In terms of the broader question about service, I'll just agree with PU's answer - he said it better than I can...

I'm not looking for any particular response, truly. No question what you are talking about is unique to the faith.

[myboynoah]

Our district is sending three busses plus some in private automobiles up north of Sendai this weeked to help with clean up. It started as a youth service trip but it looks like there are an equal number of adults going as well. They leave tomorrow night at 11:30 pm to travel all night so they can arrive at the destination Saturday morning, work all day, then board the busses for home, arriving around midnight. mrs. myboynoah is the YW pres, so she's going along with Noah and our daughters. She went out with some other ladies in the branch on Monday to purchase rubber boots, gloves, goggles, etc. for the clean up. Sadly, I'm staying back with the youngest so he can perform at his piano recital.

The Church has done some very good things in response, mobilizing immediately after the earthquake and tsunami by sending church employees north to coordinate efforts from there and working directly with church disaster relief experts in SLC. Having facilities on the ground up there was essential to gaining the access needed to be effective. As of about a month ago, the church had provided the following for relief and reconstruction:

• more than 180 tons of supplies (food, water, blankets, etc.)
• 10,000 liters of fuel
• 30,000 hygene kits assembled by church members in other parts of Japan
• 100,000 hours of service by 10,000 Japanese members
• several trucks and motor scooters to deliver goods to inaccessable areas
• 5 vans donated to Onogawa city

At one point The Church teamed with McDonalds Japan to deliver some of its blankets. Also, at one chapel here in Tokyo where hygene kits were being assembled, the response was so great that they finished their alotment in half the time expected.

Twenty-three meeting houses were damaged, but I think only one was a total loss. Several members lost their homes and I was told that The Church will use fast offering funds to make up the difference that is not provided by insurance and government funds to restore those homes. I wonder how much that will be since I expect the Japanese Government will be very generous in that regard.

[RC Vikings]

Keep going. This thread is providing me with a lot more material than JL's turn down service.

[byu71]

I pay my fast offering faithfully and always have. I am especially proud when I see the church providing material goods to non-members in need due to some catastophe.

[Jarid in Cedar]

Our district is sending three busses plus some in private automobiles up north of Sendai this weeked to help with clean up. It started as a youth service trip but it looks like there are an equal number of adults going as well. They leave tomorrow night at 11:30 pm to travel all night so they can arrive at the destination Saturday morning, work all day, then board the busses for home, arriving around midnight. mrs. myboynoah is the YW pres, so she's going along with Noah and our daughters. She went out with some other ladies in the branch on Monday to purchase rubber boots, gloves, goggles, etc. for the clean up. Sadly, I'm staying back with the youngest so he can perform at his piano recital.

The Church has done some very good things in response, mobilizing immediately after the earthquake and tsunami by sending church employees north to coordinate efforts from there and working directly with church disaster relief experts in SLC. Having facilities on the ground up there was essential to gaining the access needed to be effective. As of about a month ago, the church had provided the following for relief and reconstruction:

• more than 180 tons of supplies (food, water, blankets, etc.)
• 10,000 liters of fuel
• 30,000 hygene kits assembled by church members in other parts of Japan
• 100,000 hours of service by 10,000 Japanese members
• several trucks and motor scooters to deliver goods to inaccessable areas
• 5 vans donated to Onogawa city

At one point The Church teamed with McDonalds Japan to deliver some of its blankets. Also, at one chapel here in Tokyo where hygene kits were being assembled, the response was so great that they finished their alotment in half the time expected.

Twenty-three meeting houses were damaged, but I think only one was a total loss. Several members lost their homes and I was told that The Church will use fast offering funds to make up the difference that is not provided by insurance and government funds to restore those homes. I wonder how much that will be since I expect the Japanese Government will be very generous in that regard.

This is awesome on so many levels

[myboynoah]

A follow-up on The Church and Tohoku relief efforts.

Our district's effort a few weeks back where they took about 150 people (mostly youth) up north to help clean up is serving as a model for The Church's efforts going forward. Since that time it has sent two large groups of missionaries as well. The Church has decided that all units located in Nagoya and to the east will go up north to help with the clean up for their Day of Service, which should happen sometime this summer. The Church will pay for the transportation and as noted above, the units will use our district's effort as the model (we worked through much of the kinks putting it together).

Even better, The Church will also be chartering buses for regular trips up north for anyone that wants to sign up to go help. The Church will also pay for lodging for those that go. Volunteers should plan to stay a few days. Tentatively these buses will leave on Monday evenings after FHE and on Thursdays with return trips on Thursdays and Saturdays. This will allow members and their friends the opportunity to go help when they can.

The area around Sendai is progressing fairly well, but things are still rough further north, particularly in Iwate prefecture. Still a lot of work to do.

A few other cool things:

• When the missionaries went up they sent about 50 of them over to a centuries-old Shinto shrine that was hit hard to help clean up under the direction of the local priest.
• The Church's yellow Helping Hands t-shirts and vest are getting to be fairly well known. When they show up, people know they are there to help and ask them to come to their homes to assist with a variety of tasks.
• There is still high-level interest in the effort here. Elder Costa was here a couple of weeks ago and Bishop Burton will be coming soon to present ice-making and refrigeration equipment to a local fishing cooperative to help rebuild the industry, which was pretty much wiped out all along the coast by the tsunami.
• The people The Church has in place right now in the area office, most of whom arrived over the past 16 months and before the earthquake, form a team with significant expertise and ties to the Tohoku region. The Lord prepared well.